Australian Mortgage Brokers are all concerned with the proposals highlighted in the reports released this week from the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation
and Financial Services Industry.
In the credit space, the Royal Commission proposals ultimately hope to ensure responsible lending and the borrowers’ best interests are addressed, yet their recommendations seem counterproductive...
Empowering responsible lending
Here at FileInvite, we empower responsible lending, and brokers to work more efficiently in the best interest of their clients.
We’re committed to providing the best loan document collection software we can, and streamlining the process for borrowers, brokers and banks. The clients get an easy to use client portal, and our built in audit logs provide piece of mind too.
The proposed changes to Broker commissions, if accepted, would be detrimental
We share the concern some of our clients are voicing: that particular proposals could be detrimental to the livelihood of over 27,000 Australian Mortgage Brokers.
At the very least having significant impact on the way they are remunerated for their involvement in over half of all loans originated in Australia.
If you’ve missed them, the points of particular interest to Mortgage Brokers in the Royal Commission are:
- The removal of trailing commissions
- The review of volume commissions and incentives
- The proposal to have borrowers pay a fee to brokers rather than receive it from lenders.
Many are stating it is clear borrowers would be reluctant to pay a fee. Especially when brokers add a reasonable cut to the actual costs of provisioning the services they offer. The changes will have a serious impact on overall business plan for many mortgage brokers .
Borrowers and Brokers are concerned about what this will mean for service levels and competition
Borrowers themselves are expressing concerns around what this will do to competition across banks Brokers drive competition as salespeople for smaller lenders to compete with larger banks.
Brokers also enable regional and remote borrowers access to financial advice and tools that they would not get in person by banks that don’t serve rural, farming and remote families.
Reaction from the industry
AFG, one of Australia’s largest mortgage broking groups, have created the following website which highlights the benefits of the Mortgage Broker industry. Their message: Asking the Australian Government to Keep Competition Alive.
A change.org website has also launched calling on the Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg to ignore the recommendation made by the Banking Royal Commission to change Mortgage Broker remuneration.
Irregardless of the outcome improving customer experience will be a win win!
Irregardless of where the method of remuneration ends up for mortgage brokers - there will still be a strong emphasis on providing exceptional customer experience to clients. On top of that will be the always present need to process client files securely, safely and in a timely fashion to banks.
Rework or double handling of files has an obvious impact conversion rates with lenders.
Those brokers who are systematic and automate the document collection process will gain significant competitive advantage, both in the speed of theirs service with borrowers, but also in cost savings and accuracy with providing the required documents to lenders.
Across the Brokers using FileInvite, we see up to 35% improvements in productivity and as Patrick says ~ "using FileInvite could save you up to $75 per borrower".
To learn more and request a demo, visit FileInvite today.
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